This is the year Eleven brings home title to FSU

Note to Zing!ers and other loud critics of Florida State’s magnificent baseball team: Eleven knows more about college baseball and the guys who play it than you or me or just about anyone else alive. Or dead, for that matter.

I’m not saying fans should have to sit on their hands. Nor am I discouraging frustrated Zing!ers from Zing!ing. And, sure, it’s a free country. But that also means you are free to think it through before getting on Coach Mike Martin for “choking” at the end of the season.

It feels strange to have to say that about one of the most successful coaches in the history of the sport. But since it is time for the College World Series, you can safely bet on two things: Martin’s ’Noles are going to Omaha, and some ill-informed “fans” will point out with obnoxious delight that they have never won it all.

Actually, I have an explanation for FSU’s frustration in the World Series. It’s baseball, and in baseball stuff happens — or doesn’t happen — and no one knows why. How else do you explain it taking the New York Mets 51 years to throw a no-hitter, despite having guys named Seaver, Ryan, Koosman and Cone, to name a few? Or the decades of frustration by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, the later of which has not won a World Series since 1908. Or the San Diego Padres in general.

I occasionally get to spend a little time with Eleven and his team. Last night, I told him this is the year. He smiled as if to say “could be,” but you can tell he feels good about his chances in year 32 of a career that has him making his 15th trip to Omaha — FSU’s 21st overall — without the grand prize.

Mainly, he likes this team. This is one of sports’ very best people, let alone one of its great coaches, a truly nice man who has a wonderful family. His players by and large turn out to be good at life as well as baseball.

Coach Martin has won 1,721 times on the field — third most in Division I college baseball history. Unless you are No. 1 or No. 2 on that list — and you are not — I’m not sure how you would feel comfortable yelling from the stands or Zing!ing your knowledge at him. There is a reason he is on the field and we are not.

But I’m more impressed with the type of people his players become. I was reminded of that watching first-round draft choice James Ramsey interact with his teammates last night, just as I was watching superstar Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants give a post-game interview with the media not long ago. Buster was “yes sirring” and “no ma’aming” every question as if he was still a schoolboy.

Credit their parents for raising them right. Credit Martin for keeping them grounded as the whole world tries to turn them into something else. Eleven feels this is a special bunch.

Last night, we talked about team chemistry and how the players on this team seem to like each other and how important that is in winning. He smiled a lot while talking about these players. They are up against a lot of history, but they don’t have to beat history, just seven other good ball clubs. I think they will. I know they will give it a good run.

Friday night at 9 p.m. the No. 3-ranked ’Noles will open against Arizona. If they win, they get the winner of the Stony Brook (N.Y.)-UCLA game. UCLA is ranked No. 2, and Stony Brook is this season’s Cinderella. The game is on ESPN2 and will be covered live by our team of Ira Schoffel and Corey Clark on NoleSports.com and in the Tallahassee Democrat.

It is a simple double-elimination tournament up until the championship round, when the final two teams play the best two out of three games.

Stony Brook may be Cinderella, but knowledgeable baseball fans across the country will be cheering for Eleven and his team that hardly anyone gave much of a chance to be here when the season began.

Include me in that group, wishing that finally and once and for all, a really nice guy will finish first.

You can send your comments by clicking the button below, e-mailing me at Bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to my blogs on Facebook. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. My telephone number is (850) 599-2177.

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You can send comments by clicking on Bob Gabordi’s blog on Tallahassee.com or Move.Tallahassee.com, e-mailing him at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to his blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. His mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. His telephone number is 850-599-2177.